P 311013Z DEC 08
FM AMEMBASSY ABIDJAN
TO DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHDC PRIORITY
DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC PRIORITY
SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 4816
INFO ECOWAS COLLECTIVE PRIORITY

UNCLAS ABIDJAN 000907 
 
 
TREASURY FOR IET LARRY MCDONALD, TFI LEVY AND GLASER, OTA 
RUFFNER AND CORREA, AND FINCEN. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT FOR OPDAT 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PTER EFIN ECON KCRM KTFN IV
SUBJECT: U.S. TREASURY TRAINS WEST AFRICAN FINANCIAL 
INTELLIGENCE UNITS 
 
¶1.  Summary. December 15-19, advisors from the U.S. Treasury 
Department's Office of Technical Assistance (OTA) provided 
training in financial investigative techniques to 55 
individuals from francophone and lusophone West Africa. 
Ambassador delivered opening remarks.  On margins of the 
course, econoff and the OTA team met with the head of Cote 
d'Ivoire's financial intelligence unit (FIU), who requested 
technical assistance, including help setting up a database 
structure to deal with cash threshold reports.  Post has 
offered to help Ivorian FIU staff members improve their 
English-language skills and has agreed to look for additional 
anti-money-laundering (AML) and counter-terrorist-financing 
(CTF) training opportunities, especially for members of the 
Ivorian judicial system.  End summary. 
 
¶2. Advisors from the OTA Financial Enforcement Team provided 
training in financial investigative techniques to 
investigators, prosecutors, and FIU staff members in Abidjan 
December 15-19.  The GOCI and the Intergovernment 
Anti-Money-Laundering Group (GIABA) in West Africa, the 
regional Financial Action Task Force headquartered in Dakar, 
cosponsored the training for French- and Portuguese-speaking 
member countries.  Sao Tome and Principe, an observer country 
to GIABA, also sent representatives to the training. 
Fifty-five individuals from Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, 
Cote d'Ivoire, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal, 
Sao Tome and Principe, and Togo participated in the course. 
 
¶3.  Ambassador Nesbitt gave an address at the opening of the 
course, in which she congratulated the GOCI for creating the 
Ivorian FIU, known as the National Unit for Processing 
Financial Information (CENTIF), and acknowledged the work 
CENTIF has done thus far.  She stressed the importance of 
applying new AML and CTF laws effectively, noting that 
criminals search for countries with weak laws or where good 
laws are not effectively enforced. 
 
¶4.  Topics covered in the training included money laundering, 
terrorist financing, the Central Bank of West African States 
(BCEAO) model AML/CTF law, financial intelligence units, 
investigative task forces, corruption, sources of financial 
information, forensic accounting, international evidence, 
money laundering investigative techniques, asset forfeiture, 
methods of proof, and investigative reports.  The course also 
included a practical exercise that was integrated with the 
substantive lectures. 
 
¶5.  On the margins of the course, econoff and the OTA team 
met with CENTIF officials to discuss CENTIF's need for 
additional technical assistance.  The CENTIF president, Mr. 
Bli Toussaint Irigale, requested help in establishing a 
database structure and in funding software and information 
technology to process and analyze the large volume of cash 
threshold reports that could be generated in Cote d'Ivoire. 
He also described CENTIF's need to establish connectivity 
with other government institutions.  Additionally, CENTIF 
staff needs analytical training so it can better deal with 
cash threshold and suspicious transaction reports.  Irigale 
also requested the current list of USG terrorist designations 
and designations made by the UN under UN Security Council 
Resolution 1267. Post and OTA have since provided CENTIF the 
requested lists.  Additionally, in response to Irigale's 
request for English-language training for CENTIF staff, post 
has invited CENTIF staff members to participate in English 
discussion groups at the Embassy.  And in response to 
Irigale's request for assistance on cybercrime issues, post 
has provided contact information for the legal attachQ based 
at Embassy Dakar. 
 
¶6. OTA has held several joint training sessions with GIABA to 
improve GIABA member countries' AML and CTF regimes and to 
enhance their ability to fight financial crime.  OTA has 
provided training to member countries in the area of 
cross-border cash smuggling (in conjunction with the U.S. 
Department of Homeland Security), conducted a separate 
financial investigative techniques course for 
English-speaking member countries, and participated in a 
recent course in Banjul for West Africa bank compliance 
officers.  Additionally, six representatives of Cote 
d'Ivoire's CENTIF and two representatives of the Ivorian 
Ministry of the Economy and Finance recently participated in 
a one-week AML/CTF course hosted by the Federal Deposit 
Insurance Corporation in Arlington, Virginia. 
 
¶7. Post greatly appreciates the support provided by the 
Department and U.S. Treasury for the newly organized Ivorian 
FIU and requests that post be apprised of any additional 
AML/CTF training opportunities, especially for prosecutors 
and judges who may be asked to deal with AML/CTF issues. 
 
 
AKUETTEH